Traces the origins of the black rage defense in criminal court
history
In 1971, Paul Harris pioneered the modern version of the black rage
defense when he successfully defended a young black man charged with
armed bank robbery. Dubbed one of the most novel criminal defenses in
American history by Vanity Fair, the black rage defense is enormously
controversial, frequently dismissed as irresponsible, nothing less than
a harbinger of anarchy. Consider the firestorm of protest that resulted
when the defense for Colin Ferguson, the gunman who murdered numerous
passengers on a New York commuter train, claimed it was considering a
black rage defense.
In this thought-provoking book, Harris traces the origins of the black
rage defense back through American history, recreating numerous dramatic
trials along the way. For example, he recounts in vivid detail how
Clarence Darrow, defense attorney in the famous Scopes Monkey trial,
first introduced the notion of an environmental hardship defense in 1925
while defending a black family who shot into a drunken white mob that
had encircled their home.
Emphasizing that the black rage defense must be enlisted responsibly and
selectively, Harris skillfully distinguishes between applying an
environmental defense and simply blaming society, in the abstract, for
individual crimes. If Ferguson had invoked such a defense, in Harris's
words, it would have sent a superficial, wrong-headed,
blame-everything-on-racism message. Careful not to succumb to easy
generalizations, Harris also addresses the possibilities of a white rage
defense and the more recent phenomenon of cultural defenses. He
illustrates how a person's environment can, and does, affect his or her
life and actions, how even the most rational person can become
criminally deranged, when bludgeoned into hopelessness by exploitation,
racism, and relentless poverty.
